Privacy Policy

1. Who we are (Data Controller)

The Service is operated by Interest Bud Solutions, a private software company with operating offices in India, Spain, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. For the purposes of the EU/UK GDPR and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act"), Interest Bud Solutions acts as the data controller (or data fiduciary) for personal data collected through the Service.

Postal contact: Interest Bud Solutions, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Email: support@interestbudsolutions.com
Phone: +91 80765 69119

2. Scope of this Policy

This Policy applies to personal data we process when you visit findwiseai.com, sign in to FindWise, use our search, comparison and recommendation features, contact us, or interact with FindWise content elsewhere on the web. It does not cover third-party websites or services that we link to; those have their own privacy notices.

3. Personal data we collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

• Account data — name, email address, profile picture, language and country preference, password hash (or Google sign-in identifier).
• Search & interaction data — queries you type, places or products you view, saves, likes, comparisons, feedback and answers you submit to our assistant.
• Approximate location — derived from your IP address; precise device location only when you explicitly grant browser permission, and only for the duration of that session unless you choose to save a location.
• Device & technical data — IP address, user-agent, device type, OS, browser, screen size, referrer URL, and crash/diagnostic logs.
• Cookies & similar technologies — see our Cookie Notice.
• Communications — messages you send to support, newsletter sign-ups and survey responses.

We do not knowingly collect special-category data (health, biometric, political views, religion, sexual orientation, financial account numbers, government IDs). Please do not submit such data to the Service.

4. How we use your data and legal bases

We process personal data for the following purposes:

• Provide the Service — generate recommendations, comparisons and answers; remember your saves and preferences. Legal basis: performance of a contract; legitimate interests.
• Personalisation — rank results based on your country, language and prior interactions. Legal basis: consent (where required) or legitimate interests.
• Security & fraud prevention — detect abuse, rate-limit, prevent scraping and account takeover. Legal basis: legitimate interests; legal obligations.
• Service improvement & analytics — measure feature usage, debug issues, improve ranking models. Legal basis: legitimate interests; consent for non-essential cookies.
• Communications — operational emails (e.g. password resets, security alerts), optional product updates and newsletters you subscribe to. Legal basis: contract; consent for marketing.
• Legal compliance — respond to lawful requests, tax/accounting obligations and enforcement of our Terms. Legal basis: legal obligation; legitimate interests.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not use your data to train third-party large-language models without your consent.

5. AI-generated content and automated decisions

FindWise uses automated systems and large-language models to rank places, generate summaries and suggest recommendations. These outputs are informational only, may be incomplete or inaccurate, and do not produce legal or similarly significant effects about you. You may always contact us to request human review of any personalised result or decision.

6. How we share data

We share personal data only with carefully selected processors and partners, under contract and appropriate safeguards:

• Cloud hosting & database — backend infrastructure used to store account data, saves and logs.
• Mapping & place data — Google Maps Platform (Maps, Places, Geocoding) for map tiles, place details and addresses.
• Authentication — Google Sign-In where you choose to use it.
• Image providers — Unsplash and similar services that supply illustrative imagery.
• Email delivery — transactional email providers for password resets, receipts and notifications.
• Analytics & error monitoring — privacy-respecting tooling to understand aggregate usage and diagnose crashes.
• Professional advisers — auditors, lawyers and accountants where strictly necessary.
• Authorities — when required by valid legal process or to protect rights, safety and the integrity of the Service.
• Business transfers — in the event of a merger, acquisition or asset sale, subject to confidentiality and continuity of this Policy.

7. International data transfers

FindWise operates globally. Personal data may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than your own, including India, the EEA, the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel and the UAE. Where such transfers occur from the EEA/UK, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, or other lawful transfer mechanisms, together with appropriate technical and organisational safeguards.

8. Data retention

We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes set out in this Policy:

• Account data — until you delete your account, plus up to 30 days for backups.
• Search & interaction logs — typically up to 24 months in identifiable form, then aggregated/anonymised.
• Support communications — up to 36 months for quality and audit purposes.
• Security & access logs — up to 12 months, longer if needed to investigate an incident.
• Legal/tax records — for the period required by applicable law (typically 6–8 years).

You can request deletion at any time via findwiseai.com/deleteaccount.

9. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you have the right to: access a copy of your personal data; correct inaccurate data; delete ("right to be forgotten") data we hold about you; restrict or object to certain processing; receive your data in a portable format; withdraw consent at any time without affecting prior processing; and lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

Indian residents (DPDP Act 2023): you may exercise rights of access, correction, erasure, grievance redressal and nominate a person to exercise rights in the event of death or incapacity.

California residents (CCPA/CPRA): you may request the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected, request deletion or correction, opt out of any "sale" or "sharing" (we do not sell), and not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

To exercise any right, email support@interestbudsolutions.com with the subject line "Privacy Request". We respond within 30 days (extendable once by a further 60 days for complex requests).

10. Cookies and similar technologies

We use a small number of strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and remember your preferences, plus optional analytics cookies that we only set with your consent. Full details and controls are in our Cookie Notice.

11. Security

We apply organisational and technical safeguards aligned with industry best practice, including encryption in transit (TLS), encryption at rest for our managed database, least-privilege access controls, row-level security, audit logging, secret management and routine vulnerability scanning. No system is 100% secure; we encourage you to use a strong, unique password and to enable browser security features. If you suspect a security issue, contact support@interestbudsolutions.com and we will investigate promptly.

12. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 16 (or the equivalent minimum age in your jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above. If changes are material, we will provide additional notice (for example, an in-product banner or email). Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

14. Contact & grievance officer

For privacy questions, requests or complaints, contact:
Grievance Officer — Interest Bud Solutions
Email: support@interestbudsolutions.com
Phone: +91 80765 69119
Address: Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

If you are not satisfied with our response you may contact your local supervisory authority (for example, the Data Protection Board of India, the UK ICO, your EU member-state DPA, or the California Attorney General).